In recent posts, I have focused on business value in Joint Providership. You may ask, “What constitutes business value?” Before answering, here is an anecdote: a number of years ago, I worked for a not-for-profit company that served the education community. A number of those that worked at the company actually believed that you needed to lose money each year, in order to be a not-for-profit!
We eventually came up with the slogan, “No money, no mission” to explain the need for ample income to fund the endeavors of the institution. We also explained salaries, vacations and the conferences that employees attended all came from profits.
The question is, does business value always need to be expressed in dollars and cents? On one hand, expressing business value in monetary terms is a convenient shorthand. On the other, when you dig beneath the monetary terms, you often find other benefits in increased productivity, quality or other value to the organization.
I have discussed the fact that many joint providers still collect financial disclosures using PDF files that are emailed, printed, signed and returned by fax or scanning. There are educational activities out there that require hundreds of disclosures. Imagine the time and effort it takes to get gather those disclosures, and reviewing and quantifying the results. There are probably more than a few of you out there that don’t have to imagine! Think about how it would work if the disclosers were using an online system that is easy to navigate and keeps records of the results.
The people responsible for the collection of disclosures would spend less time on the process, saving money. However, the additional business value here may include not just saving time and money, but having a higher quality result by having fewer things slip through, or time spent on collecting and reviewing disclosures may be spent on activities of higher value.
Business value does not always have to be expressed in monetary terms.